Glad that I did
by crimeseriesfan
Summary: ["I love you." "I love you too," she said with a smile and stepped towards him again and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, turning around once again to really leave.] I saw Double Down again and a Caskett scene popped up in my head so I wrote it out and made a story around it. The title kinda sucks.. sorry. No real spoilers. Rated T to be safe. Mistakes are all mine!


**It's been a while since I wrote a story… Writer's block, I guess.**

**Anyway, yesterday 2x02 was on TV again and at some point there was this guy, the vic's husband and he said 'I didn't say 'I love you'' as in, in his last talk with his wife. A scene of just a couple of seconds between our favorite couple popped up in my head, I decided to write it out and make a story around it.**

**It takes place somewhere after 5x24, when everything has been resolved and Castle and Beckett are engaged.**

**Yes, the title makes no sense but I couldn't think of anything.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did I wouldn't be writing fan fiction, I'd be writing complete TV shows.**

Kate was lying in bed, slowly waking up. She was lying face down so she reached out her arm in search of Rick. Instead, she felt nothing but sheets. She shot up at once. Where was he? No sounds from the bathroom so he wasn't there. She got up and walked out of the bedroom, which is when she faintly smelled coffee. She smiled and continued on towards the kitchen.

He hadn't noticed her yet and still had his back to her. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"Hey," she greeted him.

"Morning. Sleep well?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. But then my pillow decided to leave the bed.'

Rick turned around with 2 cups of coffee in his hands. "Ah, but he decided to leave the bed to make his _fiancée _somecoffee."

Kate took the coffee from him and smiled. She never could resist her morning cup of coffee. Or him calling her his fiancée, for that matter. They'd been engaged for about a month now, but she still got butterflies in her stomach whenever he said it. It just sounded so good. She wondered what it would be like when they were married…

"Thanks, I really needed some coffee."

"Difficult case?" he asked. He hadn't been at the precinct for a few days because he needed to write. The chapters he was currently writing should've been done 3 weeks ago.

"Yeah, a body dropped yesterday and we've got nothing to go on. Pretty much every lead turned out to be nothing. We don't even know where he was killed, the body was dumped elsewhere. Ryan and Espo were trying to track the primary crime scene down; I really hope they found it, including some witnesses if in any way possible."

Just then, her phone rang. Kate crossed her fingers, and then picked up.

"Please tell me you've got something."

Castle watched her, his beautiful Kate, and saw how her face changed from hopeless to hopeful. It made him smile.

Kate hung up and let out a sigh of relief.

"Did they find the crime scene?" He asked and Kate nodded.

"And not only that. I hoped for some witnesses, but they got something even better: a camera, pointed straight toward the crime scene. With any luck, the killer is on the video feed." She smiled, finished her coffee and went to the bedroom to get ready.

Castle went to clean up their mugs, make some breakfast to go and about 20 minutes later, Kate returned. She put the bag with breakfast in her bag, shooting him a grateful glance. She then grabbed her phone and turned around to leave. She was stopped, however, by a hand on her wrist. She turned back around and looked at her lover questioningly.

"I love you."

"I love you too," she said with a smile and stepped towards him again and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, turning around once again to really leave.

He watched her as she shut the door behind her and sighed. He'd better get some writing done.

Xxx

Kate had been right. The killer was on the feed, so they identified him and they were now on their way to arrest him.

The guy had a history of being violent, so all three of them had their guns drawn. Esposito knocked on the door of the apartment.

"Nick Parkers? NYPD, open up!"

There was no response, but they did hear someone moving inside. And he wasn't moving towards the door. Espo looked at his colleagues for confirmation, got it, and kicked down the door.

"Nick Parkers! We've got a warrant for your arrest!" Ryan yelled. They searched the apartment, but couldn't find him. Then, they heard some noise near the door.

"Damn it! He must've been hiding," Beckett said. She ran out of the apartment and saw him going towards the fire escape. "Guys, he's headed for the fire escape, I'll go after him!"

"We'll go the other way around and corner him," Esposito responded. He and Ryan quickly went down to make sure they were at the bottom of the fire escape before their suspect was. In the meanwhile, Beckett headed straight to the fire escape, expecting the killer to be about halfway down the stairs. She looked outside first to confirm that, but to her surprise she didn't see him. How the hell did he get away? He couldn't have been that fast.

Suddenly she heard him behind her, but it was too late. Before she could turn around, he hit her over the head with his gun and threw her down the fire escape. She bounced down the stairs and landed hard on the next flight. She tried to get up, but her head dropped again as she fell unconscious.

Ryan and Esposito got around the building just as Beckett fell down. They increased their speed.

"Beckett!" They both yelled. They started to run up the stairs, and just then their suspect took one step outside, gun in his hand. Esposito didn't hesitate and shot him in the hand, then ran towards him and cuffed the guy before he could reach for the gun with his other hand.

Ryan had stopped where Beckett was lying and had dialed 911. "Hey, Beckett. Kate, can you hear me?"

But she didn't move or indicate in any way that she could.

"Come on, Kate, be strong. It's going to be okay."

Esposito ran back up after handing Parkers over to the officers that had come with them. "How is she?" he asked while crouching beside them.

Ryan sighed. "I don't know, man. I mean, she's got a pulse, but she's not responding. And she's got a nasty wound on the back of her head."

Esposito cursed under his breath as he looked at the woman that was like a sister to him. "I should've killed the bastard when I had the chance," he said.

Ryan knew better than to respond to that. He looked Kate over again. "You think we should carry her down?"

Esposito shook his head. "Nah, we don't know exactly what kind of injuries she has. She could've broken her back or something. We should wait for the-"

Sirens could already be heard and soon, the ambulance appeared.

After the EMT's talked with the two detectives and quickly assessed Kate's situation, she was strapped onto a gurney and brought into the ambulance.

"I'll ride with her," Esposito said and he threw the keys of their car at his partner.

"I'll be right behind you," Ryan responded and off they went.

Xxx

Damn, how was he going to get Nikki and Rook out of this one? Seriously, he always put them in bad situations, which wasn't too difficult to write, but getting them out was the hardest part. Before Castle could think of any good solutions though, his phone rang and he was pulled out of Nikki's world into the real one. Without looking at the caller ID, he answered it.

"Castle."

"_Hey, bro."_

Wait, what? Why was Ryan calling him? "Ryan? What's up?"

He heard Ryan sigh. _"It's Beckett."_

Those two words sent shivers down his spine. That didn't sound so good. "What happened? Where's Kate? Is she okay?"

"_She, eh… We went to arrest the suspect, he tried to escape through the fire escape and Kate followed him as we went around the building to corner him. She got hit over the head and was thrown down the stairs. We saw it happen and got to her as soon as we could, but she was unconscious when we reached her. We're at the hospital right now, the doctors are examining her."_

Castle ran a hand through his hair and sank further into his chair. "I'll be right there," he said and hung up. He quickly threw on some clothes and ran down the stairs, not having enough patience to wait for the elevator and got into his car, racing to the hospital.

When he arrived there, he asked for Kate Beckett and went upstairs, this time taking the elevator. As he got out he immediately spotted Ryan and Esposito. He ran up to them.

"Where is she?"

"Over there, in that room," Espo said as he pointed to a room behind Castle. "No one's allowed in yet."

Castle sat down on a chair in the waiting room and put his head in his hands.

"Sorry, bro," Ryan spoke and Castle looked up. "We shouldn't have let her pursue him on her own."

"It's not your fault, guys. Kate's a strong woman; she pursues killers on her own a lot. And she's perfectly capable of doing so. It just- No, don't beat yourself up about this. And besides, if I'd stopped writing for a day, I could've been there. Should've been. But we can't turn it back now."

The two detectives nodded and Esposito put his hand on his shoulder as some kind of support. He felt sad with Kate lying in there, not knowing how she was doing, and he couldn't even begin to imagine how Castle must feel.

"Are you guys here for detective Kate Beckett?" someone then asked. Castle got up immediately. "Yeah. Yeah, we're her colleagues. I'm her partner. And her fiancé. How is she?"

"She was unconscious when we brought her in and she remained that way for large part of the examination. She woke up then but she was restless and in pain, so we had to sedate her. She's got a mild concussion, a wound on the back of her head from the gun, 2 bruised ribs and a couple of bruises and scratches, but other than that she's okay." The female doctor smiled kindly. "She was very, very lucky. We rarely get people who fall down stairs that hard with so few injuries. We expect her to wake up soon. One of you can see her now, if you'd like."

Castle didn't need to ask. Ryan and Esposito understood he wanted to be with her. He walked into her room, his heart breaking as he saw her lying there. Sure, she wasn't really in danger anymore, but still she was in a hospital. He sat down in the chair by her left side. He took her hand in his, tracing the ring on her finger and thinking about this morning. At least he told her he loved her. If she hadn't been so lucky…

No, he really shouldn't go there. He thought about a case from a couple of years ago. They were talking to the victim's husband, who talked about the last call he made to his wife. He said something about not having said 'I love you'.

… Okay, he had someone kill her, but they didn't know that at the time.

Kate's fingers slightly moved in his. His eyes shot up to her face, seeing her blink a couple of times before really opening her eyes. They found his in a second.

"Hey."

That one word shouldn't get tears in his eyes like that, but it did. It was a confirmation that she was really here with him, that she was really alive.

"Hey," he replied. He couldn't stay anything more; he just kept holding her hand and looking at her with a smile, love evident in his eyes.

"Help me up?" Kate then asked and he nodded, helping her sit more straight. She looked at him and frowned a little. She could sense something was on his mind. She squeezed his hand.

"What're you thinking about?"

"I just- Remember those two cases that turned out to be one case? With the two killers who killed for each other? The one we made a bet on with Espo and Ryan?"

Kate nodded slowly, not really sure where he was going.

"Well, we talked to the victim's husband right after his wife's body was found. He talked about the last time he spoke to his wife before she got killed and how he didn't say 'I love you' during that last phone call. And I- when Ryan called I didn't know how serious your injuries were and I didn't know if you'd survive. This morning could have been the last time I ever spoke to you and I was glad that if you weren't going to make it, at least I told you I love you. I can't imagine what it would be like if I lost you, but I do know it would be a bit worse if I hadn't told you I loved you."

Kate cut off his rambling. "I know you love me. I know because it's probably as much as I love you. I don't say it that often, but I do." She confirmed it by pressing her lips to his in a sweet kiss.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too."

**Well, that didn't turn out the way I expected… I'm not even sure what the point of the story is, but I hope you liked it anyway.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**-xxx-**


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